Monitor Profiles/Settings Thread

[xtknight]

I don't know how many people here have calibrators but perhaps you could share your profiles with the rest of us. If you don't have a calibrator then it's all good, just tell us what settings work best for you.

For Mac OS X, Linux, and other Unix-based OSes, you can apply ICM Profiles using xcalib. You may also be able to use ColorSync in Mac OS X.

The Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for XP is the best way to apply the profiles in WinXP. Vista has this control panel already included. The NVIDIA control panel does not properly import them and they come out looking horrible.

Please put them in a format similar to below for easy reading.

* NEC 20WMGX2
by Engraver

Settings:
Brightness: 55.5
Contrast: 50.0
Advanced DV Mode: Off
DV Mode: Standard
Color: User {R: 90.1; G: 90.1; B: 100.0}
Gamma Correction Factor: 0.7 (video card adjustment)

Originally posted by: Engraver
I like my colors to be a little cooler, and this is what I came up with to suit me best.

* Dell 2407WFP-HC - 2.2 gamma @ 6500K (daylight)
by ecksor

ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: Should work well at any nondistorted brightness
Contrast: Should work well at any nondistorted contrast
Image Mode: Desktop

Originally posted by: ecksor
Dell 2407WFP-HC gamma 2.2 6500K profile - calibrated with Spyder2 Pro in full dark (no ambient light compensation)

Please let me know if anyone wants to play with different settings - gamma, temperature, ambient light, luminance etc.

Thanks.

* ViewSonic VP930b (rev 2) - L* 160 cd/m2 @ 6500K (daylight)
by xtknight

Results
ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 100
Contrast: 61
Color: 6500K Preset (roughly "native")
* NEC 20WMGX2 - L* 160 cd/m2 @ 6500K (daylight)
by xtknight

Results
ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 32.0
Contrast: 60.0
Advanced DV Mode: Off
DV Mode: Standard
Color: User {R: 81.1; G: 77.6; B: 79.6}
* LG L226WT - L* 200 cd/m2 @ 6500K (daylight)
by xtknight

Results
ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 72
Contrast: 65
Gamma: 0
f-Engine: Normal
Color: sRGB
Sharpness: 5
* NEC 20WMGX2 - L* 200 cd/m2 @ 6500K (daylight)
by xtknight

Results
ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 36.7
Contrast: 48.0
Advanced DV Mode: Off
DV Mode: Standard
Color: User {R: 93.7; G: 89.9; B: 91.7} (seemed a bit red. turned red down to 92.9 after calibration.)
* NEC 20WMGX2 - L* 200 cd/m2 @ native white point
by xtknight

Results
ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 25.0
Contrast: 50.0
Advanced DV Mode: Off
DV Mode: Standard
Color: Native

"These settings should deliver great image quality for video. If you apply the profile, the desktop will also look brightly lit without being oversaturated."
NEC 20WMGX2
by BassBomb

Settings:
Brightness: 17.9
Contrast: 71
Advanced DV Mode: Off
DV Mode: Standard
Color: Native

"These were tweaked for least banding. I can see colors from RGB 3,3,3 to around 250 (haven't really tested more)."
NEC 20WMGX2
by Zebo

Settings:
Brightness: 36.6
Contrast: 50
Advanced DV Mode: Off (can't stand it auto changing contrast and brightness on me)
DV Mode: Standard or Text depending
Color: Native
* ViewSonic VP930b (rev 2) - L* 140 cd/m2 @ native white point
by xtknight

Results
ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 92
Contrast: 91
Color: User {R: 49; G: 51; B: 59}
* Eizo S2431W - sRGB 120 cd/m2 @ 6500K
by eViLsTieFel

Results: 0.7 dE94
ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 12%
Contrast: 50%
Color: User {R: 100; G: 96; B: 95}
* LG L227WTG - L* 200 cd/m2 @ 6500K
by PurdueRy

Results: 0.45 dE94
ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 100 (200 nits)
Contrast: 60
Color: User {R: 50; G: 44; B: 45}
F-Engine: User (disable dynamic contrast)
* Dell UltraSharp 2209WA
by IlllI

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://cid-9c09d09ec80b78d1.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Temp%20File%20Hosting/2209WA%20Color%20Profile%20and%20Settings.zip
">ICM Profile</a>

Settings:
Brightness: 3
Contrast: 73
Sharpness: 40
Color: User {R: 100; G: 97; B: 99}
* Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW - Gamma 2.2, 120 cd/m2 @ 6500K
by Chaotic42

ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 84
Contrast: 50 (unable to change)
Color: User {R: 6; G: 10; B: 12}
* Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP - Gamma 2.2, 120 cd/m2 @ 6500K
by Chaotic42

ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 11
Contrast: 73
Color: User {R: 78; G: 80; B: 83}
* Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP - Gamma 2.2, 120 cd/m2 @ 6500K
by Chaotic42

ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 44
Contrast: 76
Color: User {R: 65; G: 60; B: 63}


* Colorimeter profile

Misc. Terms

L* - Perceptually linear response curve (the grayscale is light at one end and dark at the other, and the increase of each step in between is perfectly even).

sRGB - Standard RGB, which provides a little less dark detail than L*, but can be more accurate in certain cases. Most suitable for ensuring accuracy in photo work.

cd/m2 - Same as "nits", candelas per square meter. A measurement of brightness. Most monitors are between 80-500 nits, depending on settings as well.

DV Mode - A setting on NEC monitors that crushes the grayscale for vibrancy, not recommended (set to "Standard" DV mode).

Advanced DV Mode - A setting on NEC monitors that dynamically adjusts the picture according to content. Not recommended when calibrated.

D65/6500K - Generally regarded as the same thing. I don't distinguish between them here unless I'm sure the term is being used correctly. D65 is a standard color temperature (about 6504K) that was devised to closely match sun in the daylight. This is natural white to most people's eyes.

Native White Point - Where the monitor's default white lies on the color spectrum. Determined by phosphors for CRT or color filter and backlight for LCD. The white point can not truly be modified except in 3LED-backlight (R+G+B) LCDs. Calibration just modifies the gamma of white to adjust this which results in a few less total colors (less bit depth).

ICM Profile - A file containing information about how far in the color gamut your monitor reaches, as well as a corrective gamma table.

 

[KeithTalent]

Hmmm, the only button I have ever pressed on my monitor is the power button.

I will be interested to see what people say for the 2407...interesting thread.

KT

 

[xtknight]

My friend has a 2407 and a calibrator. I'll see if I can get his profile.

 

[BassBomb]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEC 20WMGX2

Settings:
Brightness: 17.9
Contrast: 71
Advanced DV Mode: Off
DV Mode: Standard
Color: Native

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These were tweaked for least banding. I can see colors from RGB 3,3,3 to around 250 (haven't really tested more).

I need a 0,0,0 to 255,255,255 gradient to use for testing (havent found one)

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
I need a 0,0,0 to 255,255,255 gradient to use for testing (havent found one)

Use gradlin: http://lcdresource.com/tools/gradlin-v0.3-mix-fs.exe

Also I will post everyone's settings in the OP.

 

[Zebo]

I don't see what the point is, your 50 contrast is different than mine even with the same monitor, no? if it wernt, they could just send them all out of the factory perfect just by setting the xyz numericals.

Anyway FWIW - NEC 20WMGX2

Settings:
Brightness: 36.6
Contrast: 50
Advanced DV Mode: Off (can't stand it auto changing contrast and brightness on me)
DV Mode: Standard or Text depending
Color: Native

I plan to buy a calibrator if I buy the NEC 26"

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Zebo
I don't see what the point is, your 50 contrast is different than mine even with the same monitor, no? if it wernt, they could just send them all out of the factory perfect just by setting the xyz numericals.

Well, a lot of units are similar and some people have more experience adjusting monitors than others. My idea was that the most experienced would post their settings here. Additionally, for whatever reason, the ICM profile provided on the monitor CD does not include a gamma table. I would like to collate a bunch of ICM profiles known to work well with certain monitors.

Anyway FWIW - NEC 20WMGX2

Settings:
Brightness: 36.6
Contrast: 50
Advanced DV Mode: Off (can't stand it auto changing contrast and brightness on me)
DV Mode: Standard or Text depending
Color: Native

I plan to buy a calibrator if I buy the NEC 26"

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: xtknight
My friend has a 2407 and a calibrator. I'll see if I can get his profile.

That would be great. It's about time I started fiddling with this thing!

 

[dennilfloss]

This may be a stupid question but I never calibrated my CRT, just chose the colour temperature that looked best. Is calibrating necessary only for those who print photos to make sure the print looks the same as what they see on screen?

I think I'll just use someone else's settings and see if they look right to me.

 

[vhx]

If anyone has a good Acer AL1916W profile let me know, I can really never get mine to look good because of the viewing angle.

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: BassBomb
I need a 0,0,0 to 255,255,255 gradient to use for testing (havent found one)

Use gradlin: http://lcdresource.com/tools/gradlin-v0.3-mix-fs.exe

Also I will post everyone's settings in the OP.

Thats what I used when I tweaked, but:
Is there a way to have that grayscale in an image file format that I can use?

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: dennilfloss
This may be a stupid question but I never calibrated my CRT, just chose the colour temperature that looked best. Is calibrating necessary only for those who print photos to make sure the print looks the same as what they see on screen?

I think I'll just use someone else's settings and see if they look right to me.

I just use that free adobe tool nothing too high tech..But I want to be... You could also spend 5 minutes using the NV calibration tool in driver control panel.

 

[Painman]

I'm looking at colorimeters, unfortunately if I splurge on a big bad NEC WUXi I'm gonna be too tapped out to buy a really serious one. There's 2 entry level ones out there, Spyder2 Express and Pantone Huey. I found a site that did some even handed looking reviews of both, the Spyder2 review is here and the Huey review is here.

What I'm gathering is:

(Spyder2)
Pros: Sturdy, no nonsense, colorimeter is identical to what you get in the Pro package and you can buy Pro software later if you want.
Cons: Calibration results look to be a bit on the cool side.

(Huey)
Pros: Fast, more accurate than the Spyder2
Cons: Flimsy, gimmicky looking package overall, no upgrade path

So i'm leaning more towards the Spyder2, its results seem a bit off but the Huey has so much of a flimsy, cheesy factor to it. The Spyder2 generates a standard ICC/ICM but they didn't say whether the Huey saves profile data in a standard format.

I apologize if this is veering too far off topic but any help is appreciated.

 

[Zebo]

eye one 2's color performance is top notch in reviews I've read and software too so I will let you borrow it when you get the 2690. I just ordered it from egg.

 

[Painman]

Cool. If I end up needing it, you'll know about it

 

[dennilfloss]

Bump for numbers.

 

[xtknight]

New VP930b rev 2 settings, bump.

 

[Painman]

2690 info for what it's worth (using SVII internal calibration, which is a bit like cruise control):

White point target - 6000K (measured this to be the native white point)
Brightness - 159 Cd/M² est. (value chosen by SVII to achieve 140 Cd/M² target)
Contrast - 50
Black Level - 128
Gamma Curve - 2.2 (programmed)
Auto Luminance - Level 1 (forced by SVII)
Colorcomp - level 3

What this translates into for someone who has a brand new 2690 but can't calibrate it yet is:

- Set Auto Luminance to 1 (or 3)
- Turn Colorcomp on and set it to some value (1 through 5 are available, higher values may suppress luminance more but 3 is a good place to start; it does seem to work as advertised).
- Leave Color Control set to Native.
- Set Gamma to 2.2, or download GammaComp for free and let it do its thing - try it and see if you like it. The 2690's native gamma is close to 2.2.
- I found 150 Cd/M² to be a comfortable brightness setting when I first got my 2690, and the 159 that was chosen by SVII to approximate an actual value of 140 isn't too far from that. Try 150-160 and see how you like it.
- I've never touched the contrast control and don't really sense the need to do so.
- Black level adjustment is useful only if you feel like crushing blacks or whites for some reason. It doesn't increase the quality of either, just the quantity. Leave it at 128.

 

[xtknight]

Painman: sounds good. Seems like it could be calibrated a bit tighter though (159->140?) Do you have a set of dE94 measurements? Indeed leaving contrast mostly alone is a good policy. Am I right that the 2690 has adjustments for "black level" (backlight), "brightness" (matrix black), and "contrast" (matrix white)? If there are options to calibrate in L* that generally provides better color reproduction.

Found your dE94 measurements on your review. I was getting about 0.60 dE average on my S-IPS when contrast was near 100% and brightness near 8-15%. I then adjusted brightness to 25 and contrast to 50. With these settings I now yield around 0.19 dE avg. Just a tip.

 

[Aquila76]

Originally posted by: Painman
2690 info for what it's worth (using SVII internal calibration, which is a bit like cruise control):

White point target - 6000K (measured this to be the native white point)
Brightness - 159 Cd/M² est. (value chosen by SVII to achieve 140 Cd/M² target)
Contrast - 50
Black Level - 128
Gamma Curve - 2.2 (programmed)
Auto Luminance - Level 1 (forced by SVII)
Colorcomp - level 3

What this translates into for someone who has a brand new 2690 but can't calibrate it yet is:

- Set Auto Luminance to 1 (or 3)
- Turn Colorcomp on and set it to some value (1 through 5 are available, higher values may suppress luminance more but 3 is a good place to start; it does seem to work as advertised).
- Leave Color Control set to Native.
- Set Gamma to 2.2, or download GammaComp for free and let it do its thing - try it and see if you like it. The 2690's native gamma is close to 2.2.
- I found 150 Cd/M² to be a comfortable brightness setting when I first got my 2690, and the 159 that was chosen by SVII to approximate an actual value of 140 isn't too far from that. Try 150-160 and see how you like it.
- I've never touched the contrast control and don't really sense the need to do so.
- Black level adjustment is useful only if you feel like crushing blacks or whites for some reason. It doesn't increase the quality of either, just the quantity. Leave it at 128.

Thanks for this. I'm still waiting to find a decent deal from a decent dealer. I may have found one, but I have to wait until tomorrow to call for inventory.

 

[hij0deltiger]

LaCie electron22blueIII

Res. 1400x1050

Contrast 100%
Bright 90%
R 73%
G 67%
B 61%

It may be because it's old, but I just can't find the right Horizontal/Vertical Convergence.

 

[Painman]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Painman: sounds good. Seems like it could be calibrated a bit tighter though (159->140?) Do you have a set of dE94 measurements? Indeed leaving contrast mostly alone is a good policy. Am I right that the 2690 has adjustments for "black level" (backlight), "brightness" (matrix black), and "contrast" (matrix white)? If there are options to calibrate in L* that generally provides better color reproduction.

Found your dE94 measurements on your review. I was getting about 0.60 dE average on my S-IPS when contrast was near 100% and brightness near 8-15%. I then adjusted brightness to 25 and contrast to 50. With these settings I now yield around 0.19 dE avg. Just a tip.

Thanks for the tip, I still have some learning and fiddling to do. The luminance discrepancy is probably explainable by a couple of things: First is that the 2690's brightness control is a simple 0-100% scale by default, but enabling Auto Luminance level 1 or 3 turns it into an "estimated" nit output scale from 50 to 400. (SpectraView seems to force it to 1.) It's probably not a wonderfully accurate estimate. Second is that Colorcomp dampens luminance a bit, and the brightness control may not reflect this.

SpectraView is a very "hands-off" system. It doesn't lend itself well to auditing or testing - you have to run a calibration cycle to get a report out of it. I'm going to go ahead and grab the Eye One Display 2 Pro package for fine tuning and better reporting. I don't plan on running any video card LUT calibration on top of what SpectraView is doing - but I want to be able to do things like tweak brightness and contrast as you suggested, and observe results.

L* - I did run a calibration cycle with an L* curve. It seemed to inject a lot of gray shading into things that didn't seem like they should have it. Made my desktop look awful. Any suggestions on other variables that should be taken into consideration when using that curve? (the dE94 results were very similar BTW.)

2690 Brightness adjust backlight; Black Level adjustment would appear to be what you describe as "matrix black"; the backlight output doesn't appear to change when using this control.

Also, if you happen to spot any conceptual or other info in my review that's inaccurate, please point it out - I'm trying to keep it easy to read for people who may have a lower level of expertise, but I want to make sure I'm on a solid foundation for doing so. Thanks.

Originally posted by: Aquila76
Thanks for this. I'm still waiting to find a decent deal from a decent dealer. I may have found one, but I have to wait until tomorrow to call for inventory.

I saw your post at WSGF - unfortunately I think CDW's "ships in 1-3 days" is code for "backordered but Real Soon Now, we hope". Stuff that's in stock tends to say, "ready to ship".

Wish I could find you one bro. Be sure to keep an eye on Provantage too, they scan lots of distros for product availability.

 

[touchmyichi]

could I get a dell 2405 profile?

 

[Aquila76]

Originally posted by: Painman
...

Originally posted by: Aquila76
Thanks for this. I'm still waiting to find a decent deal from a decent dealer. I may have found one, but I have to wait until tomorrow to call for inventory.

I saw your post at WSGF - unfortunately I think CDW's "ships in 1-3 days" is code for "backordered but Real Soon Now, we hope". Stuff that's in stock tends to say, "ready to ship".

Wish I could find you one bro. Be sure to keep an eye on Provantage too, they scan lots of distros for product availability.

I found some at a couple other vendors, too, after a few hours of scouring. They had roughly the same price ($1550), but no tax and free FedEx ground shipping (saves me about $100). Their online inventory systems say they had less than 10 each (5 at one e-tailer, and 7 at the other), so I'm buying from the first one with stock.

EDIT: YEAH! The place with the cheapest price (www.APC-USA.net) has them in stock with no tax and free FedEx ground for $1530! I should get it by the end of the week.

 

[0x0BADF00D]

Originally posted by: xtknight
I don't know how many people here have calibrators but perhaps you could share your profiles with the rest of us. If you don't have a calibrator then it's all good, just tell us what settings work best for you.

You can apply ICM Profiles using xcalib win32. The NVIDIA control panel does not properly import them and they come out looking horrible.

I will start off. Please put them in a format similar to below for easy reading.

NEC 20WMGX2 - L* 200 cd/m2 @ native white point
by xtknight

Results
ICM Profile

Settings:
Brightness: 25.0
Contrast: 50.0
Advanced DV Mode: Off
DV Mode: Standard
Color: Native

"These settings should deliver great image quality for video. If you apply the profile, the desktop will also look brightly lit without being oversaturated."
NEC 20WMGX2

xt,

Would this profile import properly into OS X? Mine imported without errors, although I can't really tell if that's how it's supposed to look. It looks darker, and more saturated. Definitely darker than Apple's standard 1.8 gamma. Is it the ideal for text as well?

Thanks in advance.